IWD 2017 CPAN Blog series: #3 - Bundled interventions or an ecosystem approach to women economic empowerment, with interventions addressing challenges in different institutions or sectors, are likely to be the most effective.

Shofiqul, from Jessore district, Bangladesh, is now 60 years old. During the 1990s, he cultivated rice, jute, wheat and lentils on his own land. By the early 2000s, him and his family were doing very well. Now however, he says that his family has fallen to its lowest level; “in present we only eat rice with salt…in the last few years I have only dreamed about buying an egg. In the last five years, I am unable to give any saree, soap and oil to my wife.”

This was the question asked by a three-year research project, led by ODI, in collaboration with partners in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal. This blog discusses the questions and ideas that came out of a recent workshop on this project.